One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes.

There can't be art without risk. It's like saying No Sex, and then expecting there to be children.

I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button.

I have always credited the writer of the original material above the title: Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I felt that I didn't have the right to Francis Coppola's anything unless I had written the story and the screenplay.

My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.

People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.

Listen, if there's one sure-fire rule that I have learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.